Composting for heat in our greenhouse. — Kompost sooja tootmiseks meie kasvuhoones (keri alla eestikeelse osani).
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Compost bin in our greenhouse.
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It have fascinated me for several years now how compost will heat up and produces warmth which I could use. I still remember so clearly how much joy I felt when I discovered first time in one chilly morning that my compost pile was steaming.
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There are so many videos and post in internet about how to make a compost pile... so I wouldn’t dear to write another post to teach about compost. I am still learning myself. So this post is just to document what I have done and plan on doing.
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I started our compost pile in the greenhouse on 3rd of November. I want it to produce warmth for our chickens through the coldest period. I mixed in these autumn leaves that I had already in greenhouse, some chicken manure from our summer coop and green stuff I got when I weeded our garden. I did soak the pile with lukewarm water.
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4th of November – 53,6 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius);
6th of November – 93 degrees F (34 C);
7th of November – 108 degrees F (42,2 C), I did turn the pile for the first time;
11th of November – 137 degrees F (58 C), I turned the pile for the second time.
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I feel that my pile starts to smell too much of ammonia. The first result from google search was: 
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So it seems I have to add more brown material to the pile. Will try to do that next time I turn the pile. Although I covered the pile with moist autumn leaves and this reduced the smell considerably.
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So far so much then.
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Olen mõned aastad sellest, et komposti hunnik sooja võiks toota, mega vaimustuses olnud. Mäletan siiani väga selgelt seda rõõmu, kui ma ühel jahedal hommikul avastasin, et minu komposti hunnik aurab.
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Kuna internetist võib väga palju erinevaid postitusi ja videosid selle kohta, kuidas komposti hunnikut teha, siis ma ei hakka kindlasti siia järgmist õpetlikku teksti kokku panema... Õpin alles ise. Lihtsalt dokumenteerijn seda, mida ma teen või mis on plaanis teha.
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Alustasin selle hunnikuga 3. novembril. Tahan kasvuhoones talvituvatele kanadele kõige külmemaks ajaks sooja kohta pakkuda. Segasin kokku sügisesed lehed (mis juba kasvuhoones olid), kanasõnniku suvisest kuudist ja rohelise materjali, mis rohimisest tekkis. Kastsin hunnikut leige veega.
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Olen komposti hunniku temperatuuri mõõtnud ja need on andmed, mis ma siiani kogunud olen:
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4. november – 26 kraadi;
7. november – 42,2 kraadi, tõstsin hunniku esimest korda ringi;
11. november – 58 kraadi, keerasin hunniku teist korda ringi;
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Mulle tundub, et minu hunnik lõhnab juba liiga vängelt ammoniaagi järgi. Esimene otsingu tulemus googlest oli järgmine: 
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Tundub, et ma peaks oma hunnikusse pruuni materjali (sidusainet) lisama. Teen seda järgmisel korral, kui hunnikut ümber keeran. Samas katsin praeguseks hunniku päris paksu sügislehtede kihiga (terve käru täie) ja see vähendas haisu päris arvestatavalt.
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Our rabbit hutches. — Meie küülikupuurid (keri alla eestikeelse osani)
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As I was cleaning under our rabbit hutches today I started to think that there are so many things I want to improve or I want to change with our rabbits in general. These are our first hutches that A built himself and now after three years I can see what we can for sure improve.
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These drawers under hutches are very good as it makes it easy to collect rabbit manure and grains that rabbits do waist a lot. Well at least I thought it would be easy to collect the grain... My idea was to push the material in these drawers through our chicken pen. So chickens can have the grain and go through this material before it goes to the compost. But.... rodents have also found it as a great food source. I have to eliminate the possibility for rodents to get in there. So we have to rise these drawers up to the floor of the hutches if we leave rabbits were they are now.
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The other way would be to move rabbits with our chickens so chickens can clean up under rabbit hutches... This was a great idea at first but then I found out that we have rodents in the greenhouse as well. So now I put chicken feed only in their feeder and do not throw it on ground where they scratch the grain into the dirt and don’t find it leaving some grain for rodents to find. I have became very cautious not to leave any feed for rodents to find. So that ́s the idea I have to think through more carefully.
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I also have to look for good feeders for rabbits so they could not waste their food.
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I plan on making separate hutches for summer so our rabbits can live on grass while grass is growing and I do not have to bring it to them every day. That is something we will have to do for sure.
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I have also played with the idea of moving our rabbits into larger pin as a colony but am a little concerned how our rabbits will get along with each other and there could be a risk that alpha female could sterilize other female rabbits.
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These are my morning thoughts while taking hay and rabbit manure to the compost pin I have in our greenhouse.
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Koristasin hommikul küülikupuuride alust ja jäin mõtlema, et meil oleks mitmel moel võimalik küülikute “seisu” parandada. Need on meie esimesed küülikupuurid, mille A ise juba kolm aastat tagasi ehitas ja tänaseks on mulle selge, et nende puhul on vähemalt paar asja, mida me peaksime parandama.
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Puuride all olevad sahtlid on iseenesest super head. Nendega on lihtne küüliku sõnnikut ja puurist pudenevat heina püüda. Lootsin, et nendesse püüame me lihtsalt ka vilja, mida küülikud ohtralt raiskavad, aga võta näpust. Kahjuks on närilised ka selle lihtsa söögikohana avastanud. Tahtsin sahtlite sisu läbi kanaaia lasta ennem komposti viimist, et kanad saaksin selle sisu läbi siblida ja raisatud vilja ära süüa. Nüüd on vaja sahtlid nii kõrgele tõsta, et need ulatuks vastu puuri põhja, et keegi sahtlite sisse ei pääseks. Lisaks on kindlasti vaja muretseda korralikud söödanõud, millest küülikutel ei õnnestuks vilja välja kaapida.
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Teine võimalus oleks küülikud kanade juurde kolida. Nii, et kanad pääseks küülikupuuride alla siblima ja nende raisatud vilja sööma. samas olen ma avastanud, et närilised on juba ka kasvuhoones ja ma ei julge kanadele ka enam vilja maha visata vaid panen kõik sööda nõudesse, kust kanad selle nii kätte saavad, et ei pea vilja otsimiseks mullas siblima. Maha visatud viljast läheb midagi alati kaotsi ja nii on öösiti närilistel ka meie kasvuhoones pidu....
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Olen söötmise osas suht ettevaatlikuks muutunud, et midagi närilistele kättesaadavaks ei jääks.
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Tahaks küülikutele suveks sellised puurid ehitada, et nad saaksid sel ajal, kui meil rohi kasvab, ka rohu peal oma aega veeta. Ehk need puurid peaks olema lihtsalt karjamaal edasi tõmmatavad. Nii ei pea ma ise küülikutele iga päev värsket rohtu ette kandma. Seda oleks vaja kindlasti järgmiseks suveks teha.
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Olen ka sellise mõttega mänginud, et laseks küülikud kõik suuremasse aedikusse koos ringi jooksma, aga pelgan pisut seda, kuidas na omavahel läbi saavad ja kas alfa emane võiks teised emased steriliseerida...
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Sellised hommikused mõttes siis, kui ma kasvuhoones olevat komposti hunnikut heina ja küüliku sõnniku seguga täiendasin.
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Prepared some vegetables for our chickens. ——— Hautatud köögiviljad kanadele (keri alla eestikeelse osani).
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I boiled some vegetables for our chickens. Just to use those small carrots. I also have tiny potatoes but forgot about them as I wanted to try radishes and mangolds as well.... and oh boy is this mangold the best thing ever or what!?! I haven’t done this (boiling vegetables for chicken) before so it is such a surprise. So sweet. Have to look for ideas how to incorporate this vegetable into our dishes as well.
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Keetsin kanadele juurikaid kuna tahtsin pisikesi porgandeid ära kasutada. Meil on tillukesi kartuleid ka, aga unustasin need hoopis ära, sest tahtsin keedetud rediseid ja söödapeeti ka proovida... ja ossa poiss küll see söödapeet on hea! Ma pole midagi sellist varem teinud (st pole köögivilju spetsiaalselt kanadele keetnud). Nii, et see tuli mulle üllatusena, et söödapeet nii magus on. Vaja nüüd ideid otsida, kuidas seda meie roogades ka kasutada.
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Our chicken tractor.—- Meie kanatraktor (keri alla eestikeelse osani).
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We have had 11 hens and 1 rooster this year. Two of the hens are not any specific breed but the rest are Australorps. When the weather is quite warm – from spring until autumn – we keep our chickens on our pasture and they stay in their chicken tractor which consists of the coop and the yard. These parts are separate... fortunately.
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Inside of our chicken coop.
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The yard is a little over 16 feet x 105 inches. The height of the yard is 35 inches. It is covered with the mesh on sides and half of the roof. The other half of the roof was covered with the tar paper (if that’s the thing in English, sorry). Unfortunately this tar paper fell in the first winter. At the moment we have white (not so much anymore) load cover on the yard as we had bird flu problems last spring and we couldn’t have our birds out without a cover on them. But this cover have served our birds well. Have protected them from rain quite nicely.
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I am quite happy with our chicken tractor as we need the run that is covered all over because we have a hawk problem here. They do come to check on our birds from time to time. So our chickens can roam around freely only when someone from us is working outside as well. I can not let chickens out by themselves because we do not have that many chickens to offer them to hawks...
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As I said – I am quite happy with our chicken tractor, but this thing is heavy.... like VERY heavy. So moving it is a family event here and in summer time when days are longer we move it after two or so days, but now when it is quite dark already at six in the evening, we managed to get the family together only on weekends – so once a week.
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Now, when our chickens are in our greenhouse for winter, my family is free from chicken duties until next season.
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Sel aastal on meil olnud 11 kana ja 1 kukk. Kaks kana on meil segaverelised ja ülejäänud Australorpid. Soojemal hooajal on kanad karjamaal ja selleks on meil nende jaoks kanatraktor. See koosneb kahest osast – kinnisest kuudist, kus kanad öösel magavad ja võrguga kaetud aiast.
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Aediku mõõdud on 265 x 515 cm. Kõrgus on 88 cm. Aedik on ümbert võrguga kaetud ja katusel on osaliselt võrk ja osaliselt panime tõrvapapi. Tõrvapapi osa langes muidugi esimese talvega sisse. Praegu on aedik koormakattega kaetud. See sai eelmisel kevadel pandud, kui meil suur linnugripi oht oli ja lindusid ei võinud vabalt väljas pidada. Sel aastal jäi see sinna peale, sest iseenesest töötas see päris hästi kaitstes kanu vihma eest.
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Olen meie kanatraktoriga iseenesest suht rahul... Meil on lihtsalt väga vaja sellist kinnist asjandust, sest kanakull on siin suht tihe külaline. Ikka käib aeg-ajalt luurel. Nii saavad meie kanad vabalt ringi joosta ainult siis, kui keegi meist väljas pikemalt tööd teeb. Kanu ilma järelevalveta ma välja lasta ei saa. Meil on neid lihtsalt selleks liiga vähe, et kanakulli kanadega kostitada....
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Kuigi mulle meeldib see, et meil on võimalik oma kanu karjamaal liigutada, siis tegelikult on see liigutamine terve pere ettevõtmine. See seadeldis on ikka mega raske.... nagu MEGA raske. Nii saavad kanad suvel, kui päevad on pikemad enamjaolt üle kahe päeva edasi tõstetud... ikka suht tihti ja praegusel ajal, kui juba kuuest hämar on, said kanad puhtale pinnale ainult korra nädalas. Lihtsalt tervet pere selleks ürituseks valgel ajal kokku ei saa.
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Nüüd on kanad aga kasvuhoones ja pere on kanakohustustest järgmise hooajani prii.
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Winterizing our chickens. —– Kanad talvekorterisse (keri alla eestikeelse osani).
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Our chickens are staying on our pasture in their chicken tractor for the warm season – from spring to autumn. And today was the day they moved into their winter coop that is attatched to our greenhouse.
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I do not clean the greenhouse after growing season of tomatoes and the rest of the vegetables is over. I leave it to chickens to take care of that. After they have cleaned all the green matter there I bring them more autumn leaves and hay. So there will be some sort of deep litter which we clean out in spring before next growing season to plant tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse again.
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This spring I built compost pile from the deep litter from the greenhouse and I turned it couple of times in the summer. Now I have very nice compost wich I put on our garden beds. Perhaps it ( compost) should sit a little longer in this pile but I already know that I do not have time in spring to prepare all the beds at right moment and all my spring plantings and seedings will delay because of that. So I do try to prepare my garden beds this autumn already. At least some beds....
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Meie kanad veedavad soojema hooaja (kevadest sügiseni) oma kanatraktoris karjamaal ja talvel kasvuhoonega ühendatud soojustatud kuudis. Täna oli siis see päev, kus me kolisime nad “talvekorterisse”.
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Peale kasvuhooaja lõppu ma kasvuhoonet ei korista. Jätan selle kõik kanade hooleks. Peale seda kui nad on kogu rohelise materjali ära “koristanud” hakkan ma seal sügavallapanu kasvatama. Lisan kasvuhoonesse aegajalt heina ja sügislehti. Kevadel, ennem kasvuhooaja algust, veame sügavallapanuks veetud materjali, mis on kanakakaga rikastatud jälle kasvuhoonest välja.
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Sel kevadel tassisin kogu selle materjali kompostihunnikusse. Vedasin aga kärutäie ja kastsin leige veega. Kompost läks väga kiiresti käima. Tõstsin seda hunnikut suvel mõned korrad ka ringi ja nüüd, sügiseks, on meil super äge kompost, mida ma peenardele tassin. Ilmselt peaks see kompost veel hunnikus seisma, aga ma juba tean, et kevadel ei tule mul peenarde ettevalmistamisest midagi välja. Lõpuks venivad jällegi külvamine ja taimede istutamine hiiglama pika aja peale. Parem on ikkagi sügisel, nii palju kui saab, peenraid ette valmistada. Kasvõi mõned peenrad....
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